Part Girl, Part Wolf, All Torchwood
by CJAcrologic
Summary: Avery Trent, a shape-shifter from the planet Markova, has been working with Jack at Torchwood 3 for seven years. She loves her team, so when Gwen comes along, how much will things change? ... I tried to make that sound mysterious, but it really isn't. It's a story about a funny girl that interacts with the Torchwood Crew in different ways! DFTBA!
1. Chapter 0 Prologue

**Chapter 0**

**Prologue **

**Umm... Hi?**

**Story is rated T because it's Torchwood. My friend just laughed about that. What's so funny? … Oh! I get it! I meant that Torchwood uses rougher language and has more.. adult themes. And gore and blood. Enjoy!**

**?**

I had just gotten here. But where is here? Disoriented and confused, I walked. And walked. I had made my way into the center of a city when I saw someone coming out of the ground. So, being me, I walked over to him.

"Can I help you?" he asked. I quickly assimilated his language and spoke.

"Hello? How did you do that? That doesn't look like technology this planet has yet.." I mumbled. Did I hit my head when I crashed? My legs were feeling like pudding. I hope it's chocolate. I love these human's chocolate... I think this is Earth. ... Based on the tech, 21st century Earth. That was one of my favorite planets to study in school.

"What do you mean? How can you see me?" the man asked rudely. He wasn't a very nice man.

"I can see through perception filters. But it's all a bit blurry..." I moaned seconds before my knees gave out. I think he caught me, but everything went black.

...

I woke up in a cell, underground. "Hello?" I called. My vision was a bit better. There were footsteps and the sound of a door opening.

The man from earlier appeared in my sight. "Hello. I'm Captain Jack Harkness, who are you?"

"First, can you tell me where I am? And preferably the date as well... Please?" I asked tiredly.

"Cardiff, Earth, January 12, 2000. How's that?" he replied sadly. Something bad probably happened earlier. It couldn't have been me, could it?

"Better, thanks. Now I can say my name in your language, and one that's fit for this era... I'm Avery Trent. Nice to meet you,"

"Avery, nice name. Tell me, Avery, what planet are you from and why are you here?" he asked forcefully.

"Markova, land of the shape-shifters. I crashed my ship on Earth. Sorry. I landed it in the middle of the woods, though! No life-forms were harmed," I said, proud of myself.

"Markova! Beautiful, peaceful, _ancient_ planet. Why'd you leave? And why do you have an American accent?" Jack asked. He pulled up a stool and sat down outside the clear door of the cell.

"Oh, you're voice pattern must have imprinted on me because you were the first person on Earth I talked to. And I left because... Well, that's a long story," I slurred, embarrassed.

"We've got time," he said, gesturing to my cell.

"Um, eh, I was actually exiled... For all of time..." I trailed off.

"So you're a criminal? Lucky _I _found you. What did you do?" he grumbled.

"I - well, I may have yelled at the king..." I mumbled.

He looked at me in disbelief. "You _what?"_

"I yelled at King WirNet! He called me a "whore who can't make her own way in the world and who will do anything for a bit of sex!" so I slapped him in the face and pointed out how many prostitutes he has and how many wives he _has_ had. So I was exiled," I summarized.

"Why did he accuse you of that?" Jack leaned forward on the chair he pulled up, "I mean, just because you may be one, -"

"I'm not, though! His guards found me asleep in the prince's bed! _My boyfriend's_ bed!" I shouted, voice scratchy.

"Wow. You dated the Prince of Markova!" Harkness exclaimed.

"Yeah... Hey, Captain Harkness, can you let me out now? I need some food. Pease?"

...

**Minutes later**

"So tell me because I don't know much about Markovian physiology. How long do you live?" Captain Jack asked.

"Nearly forever. I'm still an infant, 1,562 years old. Our population just hit 5,000 this month, and I don't think any one of us have died yet. No, I lie, there was a war a _long _time ago, and ten of us died. It was so sad..." I trailed off, lost in thought. The funerals were awful since we had never really done one before.

Captain Jack looked overjoyed but hid it very well, "So, you mean you can't die?"

"No, we can, but only very rarely. The ten that died were starved for a year so they didn't have enough strength to heal, and then they were poisoned with a very specific poison, stabbed in the hearts (we have two), and electrocuted at an extreme voltage at the same time. Daleks are awful," I explained. No way am I going to tell him any more. He seems trustworthy enough, but...

We sat there in silence for a while; me eating my rather delicious Coco Puffs, and him pondering something. When he finally spoke again, he was elated. Although he hid it rather well. Again.

"So, Avery Trent, would you like to join my team? This is Torchwood and we protect this planet from any aliens that may try to harm it,"

I was wary. "What'll you do if I say no?" I asked.

"I'll either lock you up for eternity or cryogenically freeze you. I don't want to do that, since you seem nice enough, but if I have to I will," he was sad at that thought.

"Well, since I don't want to be locked up or turned into a pupsicle," I laughed at my own inside joke, "I'll join you!"

"Was 'pupsicle' a reference to something?" he asked curiously.

"Well, you know Markovians are Shifties, right?"

He gave me a confused look, "Shifties?"

"Sorry," I shook my head, "Shape-Shifters. So, my animal form is a large black and red dog... I think you call them wolves? Well, I'm one of those but bigger. I'm a Shifty!"

"Ah! Well, I knew that Markovians could shift, but I didn't know that was the terminology these days. Anyway, nice to meet you, Avery Trent, and welcome to Team Torchwood!"

**A/N: I hope you like the new chapter of the new story! This is about the girl the Captain met at the Torchwood Hub in chapters... What are we on? 20-21? Sounds about right. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask! I'd be glad to answer!**

**-CJA**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**The Girl in the Hub**

**(A/N: That sounds like a Bones episode, doesn't it?)**

It was now June, 2007. Seven earth years since I joined Torchwood. To be honest, these were the best seven years of my life. I had worked my way up to co-leader, we had built a team from scratch, and there was so much to do! Seriously, never a dull day.

I had found my first mate, and it was an obvious choice. Oh, Invisible Person In My Head That I'm Talking To, you don't know anything about Markovian relationships, do you?

Well, we find two other people to be our mates. Humans actually find it very confusing, but it isn't at all. Since Jack and I are both immortal (or very, very close), and he's wonderful in almost every way imaginable, it was a pretty simple choice.

Humans are so confusing. All those issues with sexuality they have! Mate Pairs are really any combination of male or female. Two men and one woman, one man and two women, or all three men or women. Doesn't matter. Mates are people that you would do anything for, and nothing could possibly change that. Normally, it's people that literally have the same brainwave as you so the psychic connection is a lot stronger, but since I'm the only Markovian here, I have to make a stronger psychic connection with. Jack. All the other criteria are met, though!

Speaking of psychicness, did I mention that Markovians are telepathic? Yeah. I can talk to other people mentally - like I could with all Markovians- but I can see what my mates are doing and vice verca. Well, kinda. I can see through their eyes, like from their POV. Just a summary of stuff I can do! I'm sure more'll come up later.

"AVERY! You're not talking to the "invisible person in your head" again, are you? I told you that wasn't healthy!" Jack yelled somewhere from not-my-office, where I was.

"NO!" I shouted back, "We just ended our conversation!"

...

**One hour later**

Owen Harper, the sarcastic medic with an attitude, ordered pizza for the whole team about a half an hour ago, and I was hungry, so I was following Jack around and complaining about it.

"Aves!" Jack shouted, not angry because otherwise he wouldn't be using my nickname, "Go bug someone else! Seriously, I have stuff to do!"

I gave him by best disappointed face, "Aww, fine... I'll go talk to Tosh... Maybe she'll entertain me..." he laughed and pushed me out of his office. Galumphing down the stairs, I whined, "Tooooooooooosshh! I'm booooooorrrrrreeeeed! Help meeeeeee..."

"PIZZA'S HERE!" Owen called.

"YES!" I yelled back, leaping off the stairs. Pelting over to him and ripping the box from his hands, I took out a piece and shoved it in my mouth. Only to spit it out all over Owen. "What kinda crap pizza did you get?!" I shouted at him.

"Vegetarian for Tosh. She didn't want meat at the moment or something... I got another, though! Meat lovers or whatever they call it!" he defended indignantly.  
So I just grabbed the wrong box? Oh. Ok. I was looking for a reason to get him in trouble.

"Oh. Well, ok then. You're not fired. JACK! GET DOWN HERE BEFORE I EAT ALL THE PIZZA!"

A moment later I heard him thunder down the stairs, crying out, "NOOOO! AVERY, YOU WILL NOT EAT IT ALL!" lightly shoving me out of the way, he took the box from Owen and placed it on the table. We (Owen, Jack and I) surrounded it like a pack of hyenas.

ZAP! There was a flash of light in the corner of the Hub and a girl appeared. We all took out our guns, it had to be an alien.

"JACK!" she shouted, seemingly playfully, "I HATE YOUR GORRAM VORTEX MANIPULATOR!"

_She knows you,_ I said to Jack telepathically, _do you know her?_

_No. I've never met her before in my life._ He said back, _I do vaguely remember someone like heso from somewhere, though..._

Jack ran over to her, gun in front of him, and shouted, "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

She laughed a bit, "To be fair, you guys really need to work on your stealth skills. And security. I mean, you don't even have anything to protect against Vortex Manipulators! Jack, I mean, come on. Owen is pointing a Judoon scanner at me, not even a gun. Susie is standing in the open, an easy trap. Ianto's doing a good job, though. Nobody'd expect the (hot) man who brings you tea to be pointing a gun at your head! And Tosh, poor Tosh, you're too busy looking at the security systems to do anything to me! Oh well, you're good at your job." she said very fast.

She had a welsh accent, but was obviously not from here. Her longish blue, pink and blond hair was in a high ponytail on the back of her head, and she was wearing a leather jacket that I thought I had seen before somewhere. Huh.

"How the _hell_ do you know us?" Jack shouted.

She grinned as if it were the most obvious thing ever, "Oh, easy! I'm from the future! I may look different, but that's ok. I just regenerated. Now, Mr. Poster Boy From Boeshane, can you tell me what year it is?"

"... 2007. Who are you? How did you get in here?" Jack demanded.

She began to walk around so I told Owen, _Go around behind her, we'll get her surrounded._

Se just kept talking as if everything were right in the world, "The stupid Vortex Manipulator you gave me malfunctioned right in the middle of another adventure I was having. I swear I thought I fixed it, but I guess not-"

"I wouldn't go any farther if I were you," Owen said, gun at her head. She finally realized something was wrong.

"Owen Harper, put that gun down and don't be funny with me. If you shoot, I swear to whatever god you like Jack will kill you. I know you, and even you'll listen to him,"

Jack looked at me, hoping I had an answer. I shrugged. He looked back at her and said, "What? No, I won't kill him. I might shoot you, though. Who are you?"  
"I'm from the future!" she shouted. Owen pressed the gun harder against her head.

The girl slowly turned around and spoke in a low voice while raising her hands. "Can we all just calm. Down. We can get this all sorted out. Just. Please. Don't. Shoot." she then edged her way away from Owen and put her hand closer to her pocket, and I gave the order to fire. She could have been reaching for a weapon.  
Owen fired and it grazed her chest. I'm glad he's not the best shot we have. She glowed silvery a little bit and shook herself out.

"Ok, who tried to shoot me?" she had a mean look on her face, "Screw Jack, I'll kill you for that!" she shouted.

That was a threat! Tossing a pair of handcuffs to Owen, he swiftly pinned her against a wall and cuffed her hands behind her back. Jack then grabbed her and brought her downstairs to lock her in a cell, and Susie followed.

After a bit, Jack came back up to talk to the team. He called a meeting in the conference room and we all joined in there.

"Ok team. This is a threat that we've never really encountered before. The mystery girl appears to know everything about us, or is a very good liar. We don't know what she's capable of, so we have to be ready for anything. Susie and I are going to be interrogating her after she sits and sweats for a bit in the cell. Owen,"

"Yeah?" he acknowledged.

On the same brainwave with Jack - as we always were as mates - I answered, "We're going to need you in the Med Bay, ready to help her and anyone else that gets hurt. You did shoot her, so she's probably in pain. I saw it though, you didn't get her much at all, just a tiny graze. Anyway, be prepared for anything. Tosh,"

"Hmm," she said.

Jack picked up from there, "Avery is going to go through security with you and see if we can keep this kind of thing from happening again, but keep Aves' and my Manipulators allowed,"

I smiled at him as a thanks for letting me keep it. Last year I was bored so I took his Vortex Manipulator apart, fixed it, put it back together, and built another one from scratch. So we each had a working Manipulator so we could zap around. Haha, that's how we ended up on rooftops all the time. We were both wearing them right now, and all the time, so yeah.

...

**An hour later**

"Who are you?" Jack asked her, confused and mad. His emotions were seeping through our link while I was watching the interrogation with Tosh on the computer.

She stood up and slammed her cuffed hands against the door, "What do you mean, 'Who are you?'? How do you not know me! Jack, what the hell are you talking about?! It's me, the Captain!"

"I don't know you. How did you get here, in the Hub?" he yelled back. His harsh tone scared the Weevils into the corners of their cages.

Susie walked up behind Jack with her gadgets in hand, "We searched her and found these," she reported.

Jack picked up the Vortex Manipulator and silver thing we saw on her earlier. Holding up the Manipulator, he said, "This is mine. He did you get it?" she shrugged so he moved on to her "phone."

"This technology isn't supposed to be out for another six years. How did you get it?" he messed with it a bit and tried to unlock it, but there was a passcode.

"I'm being honest! I'm a time traveler! Why don't you believe me? My phone alone should be proof enough!" she explained exasperatedly.

That was it, she was very annoying to me, too. After asking me if this would be a good idea, he dragged her out of her cell and brought her to the interrogation room.

"Oh, this is bloody fantastic..." I heard her groan.

"Answer me. Every question I ask. Answer me truthfully. Got that?" I growled along with Jack. Tosh gave me a weird look, and I shrugged.

"Yes sir, mister Harkness sir!" the woman smirked before trying to salute. Jack must have glared at her, because she rolled her eyes.

"Who are you?" he put his hands on the table like he always did when interrogating.

"The Captain, Evangeline Alexa Days or Kalos. Wanna know any aliases, too? You won't find me anywhere, but just for, you know, security,"

_Wow, she's cocky, isn't she?_ I asked Jack. He nodded, and "the Captain" took that as a yes.

"Olivia Smith, Dazey Days and Crazy K. Oh, and River calls me Honey, but I think that's more of a pet name to be honest... You came up with the last two for me. You won't be able to find them anywhere, but you'll find my traveling partner's name. To be fair, I love him to death, he's too careless!"

"How did you get my Vortex Manipulator?" was the next question.

"You gave it to me! Well, actually, you gave it to me to give back to you when I saw you in your past, my future, this you's future, this me's past. You had somehow found/made a fancy-schmancy duplicator, duplicated it, and slipped the copy into my pocket when I collapsed onto you after a very hard year...! Therefore, avoiding a paradox!" came her very smily answer.

Jack looked up at the ceiling, exactly where I was and silently begged me for help. _Sorry_, I said.

"Ooh, are they up there? Hi, guys!" the girl laughed, waving.

_Slap her! This is an official investigation, and she's... She's doing that!_ The thought occurred to Jack and I at the exact same time, so I wasn't influencing him in any way.

She gasped, stood up, and said to him, "You slapped me! You. Slapped. Me! In the face! How could you slap me? We're like brother and sister! You even swore to protect me!" she sat back down, glowering and depressed. Susie came down and traded places with him. He walked back upstairs to me, fuming.

I ran over and gave him a hug, we needed one.

_What do we do with someone like that_? I asked him, knowing he needed to believe he had tons of answers.

_I'm not sure. We could try and get her back to whatever planet she came from..._

We pulled out of the hug to watch Susie interrogate the so-called Captain.

**If you really wanted to, you could've skipped a lot of this chapter... I'm gonna try and not do AN's here, so bye!**  
**-CJA**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Interrogations**

She took a breath and said, "You know, it's really hard: doing this. Having someone you care for have no clue who you are and for them to hurt you like that..."

She was crying but went on, defeated, "I'll answer your questions. No sarcasm, no talking back, none of that. Just answering questions,"

Suzie looked up at us then went on, "Can you tell me what this is?" she laid out a picture of the stick.

"It's a Sonic Screwdriver I made. Slightly telepathic, no settings or extra buttons that get in the way. Even has a wood setting, something my friend couldn't ever figure out,"

"Owen, our medic-" she began.

"I know who he is," the girl snapped.

She continued, "Well, Owen says that you have two hearts. What species are you?"

The Captain looked directly at the camera, knowing Jack and I were watching. She said only two words, "Time Lord," and Jack fell out of the chair. I helped him up and internally panicked a little bit, too. Time Lord? I thought the Doctor was the only one left! **(A/N: recap over! Read now!)**

"Jack," I said, realizing he was thinking about something really important, "What is it?"

"I know her. Well, I've seen her. When I was traveling with the Doctor, we we called to Cardiff one month from now where she talked to us and did some stuff to the TARDIS. They're the last two Time Lords,"

Susie came back up. We missed the last of the interrogation. "Does anyone here know what's going on?" she shouted at us. Jack and I shrugged. How would we explain this?

**Two hours later:**

We did it. We told the team who we thought she was, our plan for what to do with her, and whatever else was going on. It took two freaking hours!

We sent Ianto down to give her some coffee. It was now obvious she wasn't in pain or needed medical attention; she had found something not dangerous in her pockets and was now turning the lights on and off. She seems like a little child! I'm surprised she lasted this long without something to do.

Jack and I watched the two welshpeople's interaction.

"I'm not dangerous, you know. Ha, how many times have you heard someone down here say that? Anyway," she gave an empty laugh, "I know you really well in the future. We're really good friends. I hope this doesn't change that. Diolch,"

The Captain's voice was dead. She was defeated, it seemed. Maybe it's just an act, though...

**1 hour after that:**

Jack and Susie went down again. Not speaking, they led her to the Med Bay. Owen looked like he was preparing something to numb the area that needed stitches, but it wasn't anything at all. Probably saline or something. I, feeling a bit cruel, wanted to see how she'd react to something like this. No, we weren't going to torture her or anything, we were just going to see if she could tell us what she could and couldn't have, and whatever.

"No no no no no no, no needles. No drugs. No... Medical stuff. Please," she literally pleaded.

Why is she so jumpy about this? I asked Jack. He shrugged.

"Why not?" Owen asked. "Jack says no aspirin, that's the only thing that could really kill you. No aspirin here, see? This is a numbing agent so I can stitch up the wound on your chest. Sorry about that-"

"No, he's right, aspirin kills, but I'm different. I've had a... Very bad experience with drugs and I'm not quite over it yet. Don't give it to me, I've handled much worse. Oh, by the way, since I'm still regenerating, that bullet didn't even touch me. And before you ask, when a Time Lord is mortally wounded, they regenerate, or get an entire new body and personality. They rebuild, kinda, for 15 hours. So until then, I'm invincible, kinda, again,"

She coughed and silver dust poured out of her lungs, "That's just some residual energy. I'm fine. Any questions?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind, how did you die to make you regenerate recently?" Jack asked her.

"... I was shot in the chest by an archer from Sparta, to be honest..." the Captain said in a typical welsh cadence. Everyone laughed a little, then I left. I don't like the Med Bay.

...  
**1/2 hour later**

"Owen Harper, Torchwood Agent 565, that is a beautiful nonexistent scar!" I heard from the Med Bay. So Owen's examination went well, I suppose. I wonder how many times he tried to hit on her...

"Thank you, thank you! I know, I am the best doctor ever!"

"Haha, sorry, no. To be fair, and I think even Jack'll agree with me, my Doctor's better!"

I walked out of my office and greeted Ianto. He was situating a cart of everything in the pockets of her jacket, and having a hard time with it.

"What's up, Ianto? Need help?" I asked.

He said politely, "No, but thank you, m'am -"

"Ianto!" I whined playfully, "I've told you! Call me Avery! That is my name, as close as human language allows," I draped my arm over his shoulder, "Maybe I should come with you and make sure none of it moves..."

So we walked in, carrying her jacket and pulling a cart of things. "Here's your things back. If I may ask, how did you fit everything in these pockets?" Ianto asked. I walked up the stairs and leaned against Jack.

"They're bigger on the inside, of course! Well, technically they're dimensionally transcendental, but whatever. Human minds may not be able to comprehend..."

"Hey!" I shouted. She didn't seem to hear me. Jack patted my head and smirked.

"Hey, Harkness?" she shouted, catching both of our attentions, "Can I take my stuff back, please? I want my Sonic and my Manipulator the most,"

"Ok, fine. Here's your Sonic and phone and stuff. Did I hear you say it's telepathic and has a wood setting?" he laughed.

"Yeah, pretty genius, right? I know, thank you, thank you! Now, what the hell is this?" she exclaimed, holding up a plastic mannequin arm. "Ooh, that's from Rose! I loved that episode! But, to be honest, I don't like her all that much..."

Jack and I glared at her. We had both met Rose and loved her to bits!

We all picked through the cautiously, not knowing what was in there. "3D glasses, I want those, but not quite sure why 9 has them... Ooh, spark plugs from New Earth the Thirteenth! You can have those..."

...

A month went by before one night, when I was at a sleepover at Tosh's house, Jack said she disappeared. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I'm positive we'll be seeing her again.

**I know this was a short and crappy chapter, so SUPRISE! I'll do another one! Merry Chrismahanakwanzica!**  
**-CJA**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Everything Changes**

**2007, sometime at night**

"Jack, I don't like this. Strange murders. There aren't often murders," I said, leaning onto him, my long black and red hair cascading down my chest. My large silver and blue eyes met his bright blue ones and he smiled.

"Hey, we'll get through this! We always do!" My mate reassured me, rubbing my arm. I wasn't so sure. Even so, I fell asleep on top of him, listening to his strange single-heart heartbeat and using him as a pillow.

...  
**Next day**

We all stepped out of the car and into the rain.

"AURGH! Jack, I'm gonna melt!" I whined.

"No you're not, Avery! You're a wolf, not a witch!" he laughed back.

I shook my head of long black-and-red-tipped hair and fixed my dark blue trench coat that I "borrowed" from the 10th Doctor. I met him on Christmas day, seeing as the Sycorax identified me as being a superior alien with superior technology. I stole - ahem, borrowed - a coat from the TARDIS's closet. It was so cool! I mean, bigger-in-the-inside pockets! Awesome!

"There you go. Estrogen, I can taste it. Can't you, Avery?" Jack asked. I nodded. "You take the pill, flush it away, enters the water system, feminizes the fish, goes all the way up to the sky, then falls all the way back down to us. Contraceptives in the rain. Love this planet. Still, I won't get pregnant!"

"Oh, you are never, _ever_ doing that again!" I exclaimed. Owen laughed. "He did, once! It was awful! Thankfully the alien race that he did it with came back to get the baby..."

"How's it going?" Jack asked Susie, looking for a way out of this conversation. She shook her head.

"Nothing yet. It's gotta connect. I've just gotta feel it!" she said. I laughed, but covered it as a cough, receiving a glare from the woman wearing a menacing metal gauntlet.

"Well hurry up and feel it! Freezing my arse off here!" Owen snapped. I patted him on the shoulder.

"Good one!" I said sarcastically. He tolled his eyes.

"I can't just flick a switch, it's more like access. It grants me access," she excused. Is that it? Made an excuse for, excused? Pshaw, humans. Their language is so strange.

"Whatever that means," Owen said, being snarky as usual.

"It's like - oh oh oh!" Susie gasped.

"Positions!" Jack shouted.

"If I get punched again, I'm punching it right back," Owen Harper said.

"I'll help it punch you. That was hilarious!" I laughed.

"Just concentrate. Susie?" Jack asked as the rain's sound stopped. When the man came back to life and started moving, I heard something.

_You hear that_? I said to Jack mentally.

_No, but you being a Shifty may help. What was it?_ He replied.

_A gasp... Want me to go check it out?_

_No. We can't risk it. Stay here, we need to calm him down in three, two, one..._

We knelt down in front of Mr. Dead Face.

"What's your name?" Jack asked.

"John. John Tucker," he said, panicked.

"Ok John, not long now," I reassured.

"Who are you?"

I introduced us, loud enough for the person to hear, "I'm Captain Avery Trent, and this is Captain Jack Harkness."

"Tell me," Jack said after giving me a look, "What was it like when you died? What did you see? John. Tell me what you saw,"

"Ten seconds," Susie said.

"Shut up," I snapped in my American accent. Ha, the absurdity of this situation just struck me. I'm an alien, working for a place that catches aliens, speaking with an American accent, in the middle of Wales! Ha!

I must've zoned out for a second because John was talking.

Luckily, John was focusing on Jack and didn't notice my lapse, "Nothing. There's nothing. Oh my god, there's nothing!" and he died. The rain began again and I felt sick. So I coped by puking. The stench of blood was getting to my highly-sensitive nose.

After a second, I stood up, "Well, maybe there's no way to do this," Jack and I, thinking together, spoke the next thing at the same time, directly to whoever was up there, "What do you think?"

"Since when are you a captain?" Jack asked me after a minute.

"Since now? Would you rather I be an admiral?" I said, poking him in the arm.

"Oh, god no!" he laughed.

**Next day**

The next day, I was catching a Weevil that had escaped into the city.

"Jack, it's in the hospital. Hurry!" I urged him through the Bluetooth headsets we had.

"Ok, follow it up. You have your gun. DON'T SHIFT! You got that, Avery? Stay human!" he ordered. I stalked my way through the halls and into one of the top floor's rooms. Sitting there, on the floor, was a Weevil. Gun not even drawn, I inched my way over and sprayed it with a bit of sedative. It shouldn't be able to do anything now.

"I doused it with sedative. Should be harmless now. I've named it Judy. Janet needs a friend. When -" I heard a crash with my doggy-ears. Not literal ears, but with my heightened-better-than-a-human's hearing.

"Avery? What's up?" Jack asked in my ear.

"I hear someone! They're coming, and the Weevil can still get away. It's not out yet! Get your butt -" he ran in the door, "Over here! Oh. It's you. Butt face. There is someone else, though," I finished.

"I have an idea. Is it Constable Gwen Cooper?" he asked. We did our research.

I listened for a second, hearing the pattern of her footfalls. "Yeah, it is,"

"Let's send "Judy" out and see what PC Cooper does..." so we let Judy out. And a few seconds later we heard someone else. And a scream.

We ran out into the hall, "GET OUT, GET OUT!" I screamed. Keeping Jack in mind, I didn't shift. I just stayed a human. Where's the fun in that?

...  
**That night**

"Tosh, you should go home and get some sleep!" I suggested, my hand on her shoulder. That's what I do as a boss!

"No, I really should keep an eye on Gwen. She's standing out here, in the cold, right on our front door..." she sighed.

"Oh, hey, look it! She's going away! Now maybe you, Owen and Susie can go home now!" I said, trying to get them to leave.

"AVERY!" I heard Jack yell from his office, "YOU BETTER NOT BE TRYING TO GET EVERYONE TO LEAVE!"

"WHY ON MARKOVA WOULD I DO THAT?" I shouted back, faking innocence.

"YOU'RE NOT ON MARKOVA ANYMORE, WE'RE ON EARTH!" he shouted, laughing.

I growled playfully. Slinking my way up the stairs, I Shifted soundlessly, taking up a good two minutes. It takes longer if I'm doing it in 'Stealth Mode'. I also glanced at a mirror as I passed. Instead of being human, I was a huge, red and black wolf, but bigger than normal. My eyes were still silver-in-the-middle-but-mostly-ice-blue, my fur was the same as my hair, but I was a doggy now! I'm tall, my shoulder at Jack's forearm, and seven feet long.

I barked, deep and loud, and startled Susie, who hadn't been paying attention. I could hear Jack laugh and come thundering out of his office. He loved playtime just as much as I did! He jumped off the stairs and tackled me, and I ran around the Hub. We completely lost ourselves in the game we were playing until an alarm blared.

"It's Gwen, she has pizza," we heard Ianto's voice over the intercom.

"POSITIONS!" Jack yelled, untangling my paws from his limbs. "Avery, stay a dog. You can scare her later, but let her see Barkers," he instructed me.

_For the last time, my name isn't Barkers! It's Bazooka!_ I mentally scolded him. Love that name.

"Ok, fine, let her see 'Bazooka' first. Anyway, Positions! Completely ignore her! Aves, do your thing!" Jack amended. So we sat there and waited.

I moved toward the door. Laying down in front the gear-door, I just looked like a normal dog. The lights flashed, showing the doors were opening. Gwen walked in and gasped. I looked up and slowly wagged my tail. Standing, I sniffed the boxes. She was startled at how big I was. Stepping around me, she walked into the middle and watched everyone work.

I followed her up to Jack's office. We were almost there, too, until... "I can't do this! I'm sorry! I'm rubbish! I give up!" Owen and Tosh erupted into laughter. I bounded over to them and licked Owen's face. He tasted like alcohol and some of Tosh's chocolate that he stole. It wasn't a good combination. I made a face and he laughed a bit more.

"Oi! Bazooka, don't do that! I've got dog slime all over me now!" he laughed.  
Tosh pointed at Owen Harper, "He set me off!"

"Well, that lasted no' point two seconds!" Susie exclaimed grumpily. I quickly ran behind Jack's desk and Shifted. It was painful and loud since I was rushing it, but Gwen didn't notice.

"Hmm, she's actually carrying pizza," Owen noticed I was human again, "Avery, is it the usual?"

"Yup! I'm surprised. Normally the newbie there messes it up, but no! They got it right!" I exclaimed, moving out of the office and sitting on Owen's desk.

Jack laughed and leaned against the doorway, "Come on! She was gonna say 'Here's your pizza' and I was gonna say 'How much?' and she says 'Oh, whatever, 20 quid' and I say 'Ooh, I don't have any money!' I was working on a punch line, and I woulda got there! It woulda been good!"

"Oh, you could've said 'Will this do?' and handed her some of my change, and she would be like all 'Oh, uh, ok! I think I better go!'" I said, laughing.

"There's your pizza, I think I better go," she said nervously, incidentally saying what I just said.

"I think we've gone past that stage," Jack said back.

"You must've been freezing out there. How long were you walking around, three hours?" Susie interjected.

"You could see me?" she sounded surprised. Susie nodded. Pshaw, as if we couldn't see her! This is our home!

"And before you go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" Jack glared at Owen.

He was about to cover for me, but I raised my hand. "Yup, that's me. But, in my defense, I didn't think anyone would come looking for us!" Jack rolled his eyes playfully.

Gwen was suddenly serious, "That man, at the hospital, that porter, what happened to him? That was real, wasn't it? He was attacked,"

Jack nodded, "He's dead,"

"But there's no one gone missing,"

Tosh spoke next, "We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next 48 hours, so when his body's pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night, he's only been missing for three days,"

"He was murdered?"

"Yes,"

"And you covered it up?"

I shrugged and answered for Tosh. "That's her job, technical genius. Covers our tracks!"

"And that other man, John Tucker?" she said, worried, "Last night in the alleyway, I saw you,"

Jack walked over closer to Gwen, "And what did you see?"

"You revived him," she said ignorantly.

"No. What did you see?" he asked again.

She looked down at the pizza box and rephrased it, "You resuscitated him,"

"No. What did you see?" I asked this time.

She looked me directly in the eye, "You brought him back to life,"

Jack nodded, "Yeah,"

"Who are you?" she asked, getting scared.

"Torchwood," I said, getting up and walking over to her.

"What's Torchwood?"

"This is Torchwood. All around you," Jack said, motioning to all of us.

"And what happens to me?"

"Ooh," he said.

"Humans, you're always so melodramatic!" I exclaimed, clapping my hands with joy and grinning madly. Owen rolled his eyes, I could tell. "Hey!" I shouted at him and pointed behind my back to where he was. He raised his hands in mock surrender.

"I'm police," she said as if that meant anything to us, "Constable Gwen Cooper. You can't do anything!"

"Right then, PC Cooper ... d'you want to come see?"

"See what?" she said ignorantly. Again. I don't like her all that much. If she shapes up a bit, that might change, though.

"You saw the murder," he nods toward a hallway that leads to the cells, "Come and see the murderer," Jack and I walked down the ramp, expecting her to follow.

"Go with them!" Susie urged after a second.

She put the pizza boxes down on the table and followed us. "What is Torchwood? Who are you? What is this place?" We didn't have time to answer because Myfanwy chose that time to fly overhead.

"AAHH! What was that!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Pterodactyl," Toshiko said with excellent nonchalance.

"Are you coming?" Jack yelled over his shoulder. I winked to him. He winked back.

...  
**Few minutes later**

We finally got to the cells.

Upon seeing the Weevil, Gwen gasped.

Jack reassured her, "It's all right - it's safe, it's sedated. It's called a Weevil. Or at least, we call them Weevils. We don't know their real name, cause they're not too good at communicating. But we've got a couple of hundred of them in the city living in the sewers, feeding off the... Well, it's the sewers, you can guess. But every once in a while, one of them goes rogue, comes to the surface, attacks. Actually, it's been happening more and more and we have no idea why. But it's alien,"

Gwen was almost shaking, she's so scared. I didn't say anything. Anything I would say wouldn't help.

Jack whispered, "Look into its eyes," I handed him a chair to give to her, "There you go... Take your time. It was born on a different world and it's real,"

...  
**Few minutes later**

When we got back upstairs, Owen was spinning around in his chair.

"Real professional, Harper!" I shouted. He laughed.

Jack introduced everyone, "Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper,"

Owen acted offended, "'Doctor' Owen Harper, thank you!"

Jack introduced everyone else, "Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Susie Costello, engineer," Susie looked up and smiled from what she's working on, "And this is Ianto Jones, Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time,"

"I try my best," he said modestly.

Jack and I spoke at almost the same time, mirroring our thoughts, "And he looks good in a suit!"

Ianto blushed slightly, "Careful, that's harassment, sirs,"

Jack introduced me, as well,"And this is Avery Trent, tied in rank with me." I nodded and smiled a bit.

Meanwhile, Gwen was confused. "Why are you telling me their names? I'm not supposed to know, am I? This is classified, isn't it?"

I laughed, "Way beyond classified,"

"Then you shouldn't be telling me. What are you gonna do to me?"

"What did you imagine?" Jack smirked.

"Well, I've seen too much. Your names and everything, and the Weevil, and you can dump a man in the water and lie about his death," she said, looking at Tosh. I put a hand on Toshiko's shoulder.

Jack went into Captain Mode, "Ok! Tosh, finish that calibration tomorrow morning. Owen, first thing, get a hold of Chandler and Bell, cos I think they're lying. Ianto, if he needs back-up, then you'd better be on stand-by. Susie, I know it's a pain in the ass, but I need the costing on the glove research. Avery, -"

"Oh, no. I'm coming with you. I need a drink," I interrupted, pulling on "my" trench coat.

"Oh.. Ok. Avery and you, you're coming with me. This way," he amended and motioned for Gwen to follow us.

"I'm getting tired of following you..." she muttered.

Jack and I stopped and turned around. "No you're not, and you never will," we said at the same time. Being telepathic, I can do that. She looked at me, scared. She should be.

Jack and I stepped onto a large concrete block while PC Cooper stared at us as if we were crazy.

"Stand on here. C'mon, other side of Jack," I said. We helped her up and I snaked my arm around Jack's as it started up. I'm sure this looked confusing, I mean, we were both wearing kinda-not-really the same coat. Mine was more fitted and bluer, and it was from the 25th century, not the 20th. Trench coats make a big comeback then!

"Good night!" Tosh shouted.

"Later!" Owen said.

"See you tomorrow, guys!" I shouted back.

"Now, you came in through the front door. Let's take the scenic route," Jack said.  
As we went up, Susie walked by and waved. I waved back.

...

"But they can see the lift. Why aren't they? I mean?" Gwen stuttered out, "We're right out in the open. They can see everything!"

"Do they look like they can see us?" Jack asked.

"No, but ... Look at us! We couldn't be any more public!" Gwen exclaimed.

I shouted to a man walking by, "Hello! Hey, you there, hello!" but he just kept walking.

"It's called a perception filter," Jack explained, "He can sort of see us, but we don't quite register. Just like something in the corner of your eye. It only works on this exact spot. Step off..."

We stepped off, arm in arm, "Hi!" I said to a woman passing by, "Nice night!" but she looked at us like we were crazy.

"And lo, we are perceived," Jack laughed.

We started to walk away and Gwen scampered up to us. "How does it work?" she asked.

I answered her, "The world doesn't know this, but there was once a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit placed right on this spot which welded its perception properties to a spatio-temporal rift,"

Gwen shook her head, utterly bamboozled. **(A/N: nice word, bamboozled!)**

"But that sounds kind of ridiculous," Jack said next, "'Invisible lift' has got more of a ring to it, don't you think?"

Gwen thought for a second, "But, hold on, if no one can see it when the lift's coming up, there's a bloody big hole in the floor, don't people fall in?"  
"That is so Welsh!" Jack exclaimed.

"Correction," I corrected, "That is so human," Jack glared at me, I smiled.

"What is?" Gwen asked.

"We show you something fantastic - you find fault," Jack said.

We walked away, still arm in arm, and Gwen looked at the Invisible Lift a bit longer. After a minute, she ran along after us. Again.

...  
**In the bar**

We got to the bar and Gwen asked for a beer, Jack got a water and I ordered a Sprite. I'm rather fond of this earth drink; it's all bubbly and we never had anything like it on Markova.

"The thing is," Gwen said, setting her drink down, "I just don't understand -"

Jack interrupted, "No, I tell you what I don't understand. You're gonna rattle on with that, "How can this be true?" kinda shtick. What's it gonna take for you people? If you want evidence of aliens, how about that great big spaceship hovering over London on Christmas Day? What about the battle of Canary Wharf? A Cyberman in every home!"

"My boyfriend says it's like a sort of terrorism. Like they put drugs in the water supplies - psychotropic drugs, causing mass hallucinations and stuff," Gwen explained, standing up for herself.

"Yeah, well your boyfriend's stupid!" I exclaimed, taking another drink.

"Oh, you've met him?" she laughed. Gwen tried again, "So ... you catch aliens?"

"Yup," Jack answered. I didn't take part in this conversation. It made me feel like I was someone's _pet_. If I had been speaking, I would have spat the word.

"You catch aliens for a living?"

"Yes, we do,"

"You're an alien-catcher?"

"Yes, I am,"

"Jack..." I growled menacingly.

"Caught any good aliens?" Gwen asked.

"Tons of 'em! The best one's right here!" he exclaimed, wrapping a comforting arm around me. I growled again.

Gwen raised an eyebrow, "... That's a hell of a job," she smiled after a second.

"Sure is," Jack smiled back, amused.

"This is so weird!" she exclaimed. Jack smiled again.

"And who are you, then?" Gwen asked.

"Captain Jack Harkness and Avery Trent, but sometimes she calls herself a captain,"

"I did some research and there's only one Captain Jack Harkness on record, and he disappeared in 1941. And there is no such person as Avery Trent ever,"

A sad look washed over Jack's face. "Well ... That couldn't be us... Could it?" he shook his head, "We don't just catch aliens. We scavenge the stuff they leave behind. Find ways of using it. Arming the human race for the future. The twenty-first century is when it all changes, and you've got to be ready,"

But Gwen asked more questions. "But who's in charge of you? Is it the government or what?

"We're separate from the government," I said, "Outside the police. Beyond the United Nations. Cuz if one power got hold of this stuff, they could use it for their own purposes,"

"But so could you!" she exclaimed.

"All alien technology stays on the base. No one's allowed to take anything outside," Jack said.

"But what about her?" PC Cooper asked, nodding her head towards me.

I growled, "I do what I please, thank you very much!"

Jack rubbed my arm, trying to get me to calm down, "She just stays with me. We can trust her more than most humans, and she doesn't have much tech on her. If she did, she'd be back home by now," and with that, he took another swig of water.

I gave him a look. He shouldn't lie to her, even if she wouldn't remember it. I didn't have much technology because I crashed my ship when I was exiled. I wasn't even exiled for a good reason! I was exiled because I mouthed off to the king!

"So go on, then. How the hell did you end up in Cardiff?" Gwen asked after I was calmed down. She didn't even apologize! Grrr...

"This is Torchwood Three. Torchwood One was London, destroyed in the battle. Torchwood Two is an office in Glasgow,"

"Very strange man!" I interrupted, getting my volatile mood under control. She took a sip of her drink.

"Torchwood three, Cardiff. Torchwood Four's kinda gone missing, but we'll find it one day," he shrugged.

"I know where it is!" I sang.

He turned to face me, smile plastered on his face, "So you say! Where is it, then?"

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a big accomplishment for the human race! But I can say this: it's somewhere... On Earth!" I laughed, lying.

Playing along, Jack gasped, "No! I could've sworn it was on the moon!" and my smile disappeared. "No.. Is it? Ha! It's on the moon!"

"At least it's not a Judoon Platoon upon the moon!" I said.

"Oh, not that again! How did you even come up with that?" Jack asked.

"I told you! Ever since I met the Doctor on Christmas Day, we've been in constant telepathic connection! It's like... Like we're texting. With our heads. No, never mind, it's not like that at all. Right now..." I closed my eyes and thought for a second, "He's in Manhattan, with Martha, fighting some Daleks. Fun,"

We sat there for a second, then Gwen spoke again, obviously confused at our conversation, "So you just fancied Cardiff?"

Jack explained it in simple terms, which made me snigger, "There's a rift in space and time running right through the city. The Weevils didn't come in a spaceship. They kind of just - slipped through. All sorts of things get washed up here. Creatures, time-shifts, space junk, debris, flotsam and jetsam,"

"Sounds like Cardiff, yeah," Gwen laughed in mock-seriousness.

"Hey hey hey, don't knock it. I'm a citizen," Jack chuckled.

"But where are you from?"

Our smiles fell, "All sorts of places," Jack answered.

"Thing is, we could liaise on this... The serial killer. I could be like your liaison with the police," Gwen said, trying to convince us.

"Right, I can see the mistake. You think because we showed up at the scene of crime, we're out to catch the killer," I said. She nodded.

"Sorry," Jack shrugged, "Nothing to do with us,"

"Then what were you doing there?" she whined.

Jack spoke since I didn't like this topic, "Testing the glove. We need murder victims, simple as that. The glove only works on the recently deceased, and the more violent the trauma, the stronger the resurrection. All we need is fresh meat,"

"No, you were asking that man, John Tucker, I saw you, you were asking him about his killer," she insisted.

"He'd just been murdered, what else are you gonna ask?" I said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You could get an ID. You could help,"

Jack shrugged, "We're busy,"

"And your work is more important?" she asked, offended.

"Now you've got it!" I said cheerily, pointing at her and clapping. Jack gave me a look to stop. Rolling my eyes, I grudgingly complied.

"Well, that's tough shit," she snapped, "'Cause if you let me go, then I have a duty, I can tell them what you've got 'cause that glove could help us,"

"Language!" I sang. They continued as if they didn't hear me. I rolled my eyes.

Jack nodded and spoke slowly, "If you remember,"

"... What d'you mean?"

"How's your drink?" I smirked.

She looked at her glass and melodramatically gasped, "Have you poisoned me?"

"Don't be so dramatic!" I sighed, "Humans! It's an amnesia pill. Our own recipe, with a touch of denial and a dash of Retcon. Wake up tomorrow morning, you'll have forgotten everything about Torchwood,"

"Worse still, you'll have forgotten me... Which is kind of tragic," Jack added, shrugging.

She stood up and grabbed her coat, running out the door. We sighed and grabbed our coats as well, chasing after her.

"Don't think you can fight it by staying awake. I mixed in a little bit of sedative too!" I said.

"... Then I'll tell someone!" she said determinedly.

"Do you want to do that? Do you really want us to come and find them too?" Jack shouted back to her.

"You bastard!" she exclaimed. What a mouth!

"Language!" I scolded, "Nice knowing you, Gwen Cooper," and with that, we turned and walked away, linking arms again.

I heard her running away and I smirked a bit. But then I got tired of walking, so I stopped short, making Jack stop just as abruptly.

"What is it? What's wrong? Is it Gwen?" he asked, looking me over.

"I'm tiiiiirrrrreeeeeddddd of walking!" I whined, "Carry me pwease?" batting my eyelashes and giving him the Ultimate Puppy Dog Face (which, of course, I mastered!).

Groaning playfully, he gave in. "Oh, alright! But just this once!" he crouched down slightly, allowing me to hop up onto his back.

"Wheeeeeeee!" I squealed as he took off. Laughing, he carried me all the way back to the Hub.

...  
**The next night**

Jack and I had been watching the CCTV footage near Gwen's house of the night before. We were about to go run around the Hub and play some game (hopefully naked hide-and-seek!) when proximity alarms went off.

"You wanna go check that out?" he asked me.

I sighed, "Yeah, sure." Picking up a wrench from the floor, I then shouted "ACCIO CCTV!"

Jack laughed and made his way over to Tosh's station to make my spell work. He turned the monitor so I could see it from the couch. And that's why I love him! He puts up with all these little quirks I have!

"Oh, look! Our favorite policewoman is back!" he exclaimed.

"It is possible the Retcon didn't work on her. I mean, not everything works on everyone, right?" I said, unsure, and it came out more as a question.

"... What's Susie doing out there?" Jack asked after a moment.

"I don't like it. Wanna go poke it with a stick?" I asked.

"Sure. Wait... Is that another one of the Doctor's quotes?" he asked.

"Yeah, but he hasn't said it yet!" I said cheerfully. Jack looked at me and opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind and instead tossed my coat to me.

"Oh, look! They're right outside of the Invisible Lift! Coincidence FTW!" I shouted, pumping my arm. It is 2007 after all. "Can I please Shift? Pease?"

"... Ok, yeah. Fine! Just hurry, I'm gonna go up," he said.

Shifting, I rushed it just a bit as the elevator started going. Shaking out my fur, I gave a huge leap and landed on the block right next to him. Pulling a hand put of his pocket, he kneaded his fingers through my fur and scratched my ear. Leaning into him slightly, I lowered my head to meet his hand. We stopped when we started to hear their conversation.

Susie was talking at the moment, "... For the whole world, isn't that good? Isn't it though? Well, that's what I've been working for, all day and all night. The rest of them go swanning about, but I'm working. You've got to get inside this stuff. Surrender yourself to it. I did, with the knife, and the glove, and that's why the perception filter won't work on me,"

She spun around and pointed the gun at us. I growled slightly; not enough to startle her into shooting (although nothing much would happen to either of us), but enough to make it known I was mad. She stepped back slightly at the sight of me bristling, but quickly regained her bearings.

And by regaining her bearings, I mean letting loose two bullets. One hit Jack in the forehead, and the other hit me in the chest. Ouch.

...  
**A minute or two later**

I sat up and shook my head, allowing the shake to travel down my furry spine. I quickly realized Jack and I were still in danger, although we were behind them now. Jack was still out, so I silently slinked over to his body lying dead on the ground.

He woke up with an almighty gasp and I gently placed a furry paw on his mouth to keep him quiet.

_You ok?_ I asked.

_Yeah. Fine. You?_ He said back. I nodded, and resumed watching the conversation with interest.

"I'm sorry. I've got to. I've got to!" Susie gasped.

Jack and I stood up. "Put down the gun," he said. She turned and looked at us in disbelief.

_Susie, it's over.._ I said telepathically to everyone. Gwen gasped. Jack held out his hand for the gun since I didn't have hands. _Now come with us._

Susie looked back at Gwen for a long moment... Then raised the gun to below her chin and shot. The sound rang through the area and was only met by Gwen's sobs. Jack and I stayed where we were, only moving when Gwen spoke.

"I... Remember. I remember!" she gasped and fell to the ground. I gently padded over to her and let her cry into my fur.

...  
**The next day**

I sat in the Hub as Jack talked to Gwen on top of some building. Knocking Owen out of his chair, I sat down and spun around. The team needed a distraction from Susie's death, and I knew exactly what to do.

"Avery! Gimme my chair back!" he shouted.

"No!" I laughed.

"Yes!"

We then proceeded to get into some sort of chair war, and then there was something about water balloons, and then Ianto and Tosh got involved and I wanted to call UNIT and invite them over, but everyone else yelled at me for suggesting that... Needless to say, we were - and the Hub was - a soggy wreck when Jack got back.

"... AVERY!" he shouted. Why is it always my fault?

"WHAT?" I shouted back. I was hiding behind Ianto at the moment, so I was relatively safe...

"YOU HAD A WATER BALLOON FIGHT AND DIDN'T INVITE ME? Shame... Avery, you have to either clean all this up on your own, or fight with me!" Jack laughed, standing in the gear-doorway.

I jumped out from behind my hot human shield and adopted a heroic pose, "Captain Jack Harkness, I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!"

**-CJA**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Day One**

**Warning: Many innuendos. It is Jack and his girlfriend, after all.**

Why? Why why why why why? Every! Single! Time! Whenever I try to go to sleep, I always get interrupted by some alien invasion!

Growling, I Shifted to my dog form. I was _not_ going to be a human today. They take up too much energy. I walked up the spiral staircase that led out of my room and into my office. My room was actually the same as Jack's, same dimensions and everything, just with a small spiral staircase instead of a ladder so I could get out as a wolf-dog.

_What've we got?_ I telepathically asked Jack and Ianto. They were the only ones here.

"Meteorite. Gotta get there before the amateurs do. Simple," Jack responded. Looking over to me, he then said, "Too tired to be human for this mission?"

I nodded, growling slightly. I shook out my fur and let it become super fluffy. Damn, now I wanna go back to sleep...

"Well, sirs, I've called everyone in. Ready to go? I can drive you, or should I stay here and inform UNIT we've got it covered?" he suggested, wishing he could do more. I stumbled over to him and licked his hand. He's so good to us... We should let him help more.

Looking over at Jack beseechingly, I asked him (using body language only) if we could take him with us. He shook his head.

"Thank you, Ianto, but we've got it from here. Ready, Zooks?" Jack raised an eyebrow at me, saying if I wanted something done, I should do it myself.

Oh well, maybe later. It is only his third month or something here. I barked happily, _Sure, but can I have something with caffeine first?_

Jack shuddered at the idea, "No! You are never, ever having caffeine again! I don't care if you collapse on the ground cuz you're too tired, you are _not! Having! Caffeine!"_

I rolled my eyes and barked again. Getting the message, Jack grabbed his coat and helped Ianto load everything into the truck/car/SUV. I hopped in the front (there was a seat there that folded open, built specifically for me in doggy form) and got ready to pick everyone up. As soon as Jack got in, we saw Owen, Tosh and Gwen show up. They clambered in and we set off.

"Simple locating clean up operation. Find that meteorite before anyone else gets their hands on it," Jack informed the team. Owen was driving, Jack was on the other side of me, and Tosh and Gwen were in the back.

I looked back at Gwen and projected to the whole team, _Good to see you, too, by the way!_ She stared at me, gobsmacked.

"Jack, where's Avery? And who's this dog?" Gwen asked shakily.

Jack gave me a look asking wether or not I wanted to tell her and I shook my head minutely. "Avery's around here somewhere. She'll show up. This is Bazooka, the telepathic dog," Gwen stared at him like he was crazy.

"Tosh, you found it yet?" Owen snapped, supposedly irked that he was woken up or dragged away from whatever woman's face he was eating. Probably the latter. kissing was a confusing subject for me.

"You got enough kit?" Gwen asked sarcastically.

"Basic tracking and surveillance," Tosh shrugged.

"Hmm?" Gwen was astounded. Again.

_Doesn't take much to impress her, does it?_ I asked Jack and Jack only. He gave me a look but didn't disagree.

"For the crash site," Tosh explained patiently, "With this we can tap into CCTV networks, national databases,"

"Is this CRIMINT? This is the police computer system. You shouldn't have this!" Gwen exclaimed.

"You might want to stop saying "you" and start saying "we"," Jack told her.

...

**A bit later**

"Crash site is one hundred meters ahead," Tosh told us.

Owen stopped the car, "Shit. The amateurs got here first," he exclaimed.

We climbed out. "All right. Usual formation," Jack said. We all began to pick up boxes and walk with purpose toward the gates blocking the crash site.

"What's the usual formation?" Gwen asked Owen. I was trying to grab a box in my mouth, but it was too hard. With a meaningful look at Gwen, she reached down and grabbed it for me. Walking with Owen, we kept up pretty well. She'd get left behind and we'd have to find her if it weren't for me.

"Varies," he shrugged.

"How can a usual formation vary?" Gwen asked. The police moved the gates out of the way and we walked through. We soon reached the middle of the woods, avoiding patches of burning grass.

_So, let's see what we came for!_ I exclaimed in the team's head. Everyone was used to it but Gwen. It was kinda funny seeing her reactions, and everyone agreed.

Setting up lights and various stations, we began analyzing the rock. "What do we know?" Jack asked when we were done. I moved closer to Owen so I could see what he was doing.

"Bog standard space debris," Owen said. Turning to Gwen, he then said, "That's a technical term,"

"Yeah, thanks," she said, getting that.

"So take all the readings and let's get out of here," Jack ordered.

Opening our boxes, Tosh and Jack threw stuff to us. Owen and I caught them all, although Owen didn't catch them in his mouth like I did.

I felt my collar jingle against my chest and growled slightly, mad at it. It was so annoying! I know, I need it because it has a slightly psychic tag and perception filter, but seriously? It's just degrading. Jack makes me wear it whenever I do a mission completely as a dog, or in bed... I smiled (as much as a wolf could) at the thought.

Owen, seeing Gwen just sitting there, spoke, "Make yourself useful, sweetheart! Pass us the big chisel from the toolbox,"

"Not sweetheart - Gwen. One syllable, sure you can manage it," she retorted.

_I like her!_ I said to everyone, effectively changing my mind from yesterday. She blushed a bit.

"Not sweetcheeks? Freckles? New Girl?" he asked playfully.

"It's a shame your tool's not big enough for the job, darlin',"

Jack sniggered silently and I laughed, but since I was a wolf, it sounded like a snort or like I was choking. Jack looked down at me, lying on the ground, and laughed when he saw what I was trying to do.

"Catch!" Gwen said, throwing the chisel.

"Don't!" Owen shouted, "Shit!"

A cloud of gas flew out of the rock, and Jack wasted no time by throwing gas masks to everyone. "Owen, Tosh!" he threw one to each of them, handed one to Gwen, put one on himself and held one to my face.

_Thanks_. I said to him, wagging my tail gratefully.

...

**Back at the Hub**

"I'm so sorry!" Gwen said. It's obvious she's feeling guilty, but that doesn't mean she can bug us the rest of the time we were there, ride back here, the walk in...

Jack turned to face her, "Seriously, stop saying that,"

"But I am! I mean, really, really, really sorry. God, I can't believe it," she said, saying one 'really' to each of us. I growled slightly as I passed, giving her the message to stop talking.

"Didn't they teach you Health and Safety in the police?" Owen snapped.

"You three chucked tools at each other, so I..." she trailed off.

_We didn't miss,_ I growled at her.

"I'll sort it," she begged, "Whatever's happened, I'll deal with it," and I snorted.

"What d'you think has happened? I mean, it was just gas, wasn't it? That can't be too bad, can it?" she asked, trying to reassure herself.

"Right, because gas never did anyone any harm!" Owen said sarcastically.

"On the plus side, we've got good evidence, relatively undamaged," Jack said, trying to keep our team optimistic. He opened a box that had a large sample in it.

"On the downside, there's an alien on the loose, we don't know where it is, why it's here or what it's going to do," Owen said. To be honest, I was with him.

"Give her a break!" Toshiko said.

Gwen sighed, "God, this has been the worst first day ever,"

"We all make mistakes. Get over it. Now we find and recover whatever came out of there," Jack said as soothingly as he could.

I looked up when Ianto's scent came closer. There he was, standing there adorably, clipboard in hand. He smiled at me and cleared his throat, "This might help. Nightclub death been phoned in to 999. Circumstances sound... A little unusual,"

Gwen ran up the steps and grabbed it from him. "Might be connected," he continued.

I waltzed over to him and nudged his leg with my head. Knowing what I meant, he scratched behind my ear and I wagged my tail. Gwen laughed a bit.

"So, who is she, exactly?" she asked. I let out something like a laugh.

"You mean she didn't tell you?" Ianto said in his beautiful Welsh voice.

"... No. Was she supposed to?" Gwen said, confused.

"Aves..." Jack scolded, "Come on.. You gotta show her sometime!"

_Fine..._ I groaned good-naturedly. _But I said I'd do this entire mission as a dog because you humans take up too much energy! And I'm so fluffy like this..._ I trailed off into thought about how fluffy I was. I may have projected those thoughts just a bit... Only a little! Seriously, not much at all!

"Oh, fine! But as soon this is over, you need to tell her!" Jack said. He laughed, knowing me so well he could tell what I was thinking about. I wagged my tail frantically.

...

**Early next morning**

We pulled up to the club Ianto told us about and scrambled out of the car.

"Torchwood," Jack said, rushing past the policemen there. One of them put out his arm and stopped us.

"Sorry, no pets allowed. Crime scene," he said. I growled and Jack put a hand on my shoulder.

"She's with us," Jack said, trying to push past.

What's-his-face protested then Jack gave me a look that said "do your thing."

I looked into his eyes, and using my super-amazing-telepathy-powers, I subtly planted the idea that he could trust us. You have to do these things very carefully; human minds are so weak. Ooh! It's like the movie Inception! Understand now?

Has that movie even come out yet? Markovians have the "power"/ability to see time, so yeah. I know minor details about what's going to happen.

The man's eyes glazed over for a second before they went back to normal. Blinking vigorously, he shook his head a bit then looked at us again.

"Oh, uh, sorry. Yeah, go ahead. Bazooka rocks," he replied automatically.

We rushed through and Jack looked at me, playfully glaring. ""Bazooka rocks"? Come on, Aves. Seriously?" I wagged my tail and shrugged.

...

We all shuffled into the small bathroom to find a pile of ash. I galumphed over to it and sniffed it cautiously. My annoying collar hit my chest and made a pitiful tinkling sound. I gave Jack a look and he smirked.

"This is all that's left?" Gwen asked. The creepy dude that owns the place nodded, in shock.

"How's that possible?" he asked.

"The question is," Jack asked, both he and I facing him at the exact same time, "How did you know this used to be a body?"

He zoned out for a second, remembering, then continued, "Bit of a shock, I tell you,"

"We need to see that CCTV," Jack said. What's-his-face nodded.

_You sure, Jack? I mean, listen to the gal who can read thoughts,_ I said to Jack, Owen and Tosh, _it's not PG - aw, who am I kidding. I'm talking to Owen and Jack: biggest perverts this side of the Atlantic! ... Did I get the ocean's name right?_

...

**Minutes later, in the security room**

"Wow," Jack said.

Tosh gasped, "Oh, my God! He just..."

"Came and went," said Jack, completely deadpan.

Owen laughed, "That's the way I'd like to go,"

_Well, I'm sure we can arrange it,_ I said sarcastically to the team, yet laughing extremely hard. Mr. Creepy looked at me and asked Jack if I was having seem sort of a fit.

"How can that be?" the club owner then asked, "It doesn't make any sense. It's not possible,"

"Do you know the girl's name?" Gwen the Police Officer queried. The man shook his head, "Did the two of them arrive together or meet in the club? Is she a regular? Would any of the other staff know her?"

"I dunno! We get hundreds of people here every weekend. I don't keep tabs," he said defensively.

Jack stepped forward, "Thanks for your help. We've got all we need," he pushed him out of the door.

"What are you talking about? We haven't got a clue. We don't even know her name!" Gwen whined.

Jack and I, in perfect sync, turned and walked out of the bathroom.

_I don't wanna deal with Gwen,_ I told Jack.

_Oh, sure. Leave her with me!_ He said sarcastically. He didn't want to deal with her, either. _Go help Ianto with whatever he needs._

"We'll need a body from the cryo-chamber, close match to the dead guy's appearance. Disfigure the face, dump it someplace remote, make it look like a suicide attempt," he instructed.

"You have a stash of bodies?" Gwen asked, stopping on the ramp and letting Tosh, Owen and I pass.

...

**Hour or so later, in the Hub**

"So, what's this supposed to do?" Gwen asked of Jack, who was pointing a laser at a map of the universe.

"I'm using satellite-tracking data to determine the inward trajectory of the meteorite," Jack said.

"He means he's trying to find out where it's come from," Tosh clarified.

_Hey! Sometimes techno babble is good for the soul!_ I said. Jack smiled at me and scratched my ear. I accidentally smacked Owen with my wagging tail. He hit my butt and I hit him again. Jack pushed me, so we stopped after a bit... Ok, we stopped after Tosh hit me, too.

"So this is a route planner," Gwen exclaimed, glad she knew something.

Tosh handed something to Owen who showed it to me, "Not far off,"

"Rhys, my boyfriend, is a transport manager. He does this sort of stuff. On a slightly smaller scale, though," Gwen said proudly. She was leaning against the doorframe.

"You have a boyfriend?" Tosh asked, slightly surprised.

"Yeah," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "Have you?"

Tosh shook her head, "Don't have time with this job,"

Gwen turned to Owen, "What about you? You seeing anyone?"

"You've gotta be joking. I can get all the grief I need here," he answered. I noticed Jack was listening in quietly.

"None of you have partners?" Gwen asked incredulously.

"Just you, newbie," Owen said.

Neither Jack nor I said anything, so agwen moved on, "I'm not being rude or anything, but... Well, maybe I am, but... How do you switch off from all this stuff? What do you do to relax?"

We all looked at each other, "I torture people in happy relationships," Owen said, and I growled playfully, hitting him with my tail in the face again. Jack and Tosh both hit us, and we laughed.

...

**Minutes later**

"Gas traces confirmed as Vorax and Suranium," Tosh reeled off.

"Great, my two favorite gases. Can we do a check, and find out what we know about them?" Jack asked.

"I'm all over it," Owen said. I think that means he's working on it. Right?

At that moment, Wonderful Ianto walked in with a tray of coffee. Jack took a cup as he passed.

_Jack, Ianto, do I have to Shift to drink mine?_ I asked them, but to everyone.

"Yes, you do, Bazooka. I'm sorry, but I don't have a dog bowl for you," Ianto teased back.

_Fine... _

And with that, I began the minute-or-so-long process of Shifting back into a human. I felt my bones stretch and heat up, my fur melting into normal skin, and I stood up straight. I don't really know how it happens, but I keep my clothes on whenever I do. Stretching, I yawned and shook my head a bit, growling again at the jingle of the collar that now hung very loosely around my neck.

"Hey, didn't you say you were staying a dog this entire mission?" Jack laughed.

"Yeah, but this doesn't count. I'm in an intermission at the moment!" I took my cup and walked over to where Jack was, trying to sit on his lap. He playfully pushed me off. Being the total ninja I am, I didn't spill a drop of my precious coffee.

Gwen was staring at me, "... Oh, that's funny. You were a dog a minute ago. A bloody dog. And now you aren't? Jack, what the hell is going on?"

I answered instead, "I'll explain later. Do your thing with the what's-it and get on with the job,"

She stood there and gawked at me a bit more, then shook her head. Turning to Tosh, she asked, "What's this doing?"

_Aves,_ Jack said to me, _Was that a test?_

I nodded my head, sipping my coffee. _She held up well, and keeps a level head when there are inexplicable things happening! Perfect for the team._

"I've taken an image of the girl from the CCTV. This cross-checks her face with the UK population,"

"You can't have every face in the UK on there. That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff..." she listed, voice shaking a bit. Still nervous about me.

"Still doing that "you" instead of "we" thing!" I sang.

"Ah. A hundred and nineteen suspects. This thing's supposed to give us a single match," Owen said.

"The CCTV was too low res," Tosh explained, "I've tried magnifying and augmenting but it just breaks up. Which means that the software can't function properly,"

Ianto appeared behind her, "It's narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest. You know, the old fashioned way - with my eyes!" he pointed to them.

I giggled, "I'll give you a hand, if you want. Can't be too fun being here while everyone else is running around, investigating piles of dust," I said with a meaningful glare at Jack. Ianto smiled at me.

"What about the fingerprints I took off the alley wall?" Gwen asked.

The computer said NO MATCH FOUND. "It was a long-shot, anyway," Toshiko admitted.

"Just a bit," Owen the Snarky Medic mumbled.

"Least I'm trying to do something," was Gwen's amazing comeback.

"No, you're trying _anything_," he shot back.

I interrupted their squabble, "The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club. Tosh, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via the street camera network?"

"It'll take a while to process," she said slowly, typing on the keyboard, "Every possible turn on every street corner means hundreds of thousands of probabilities,"

"Have a go," Jack said, "At least we'll know where she started the evening,"

"We could cross reference that with the addresses on the remaining face matches," Gwen said slowly.

Owen snapped his fingers, "Good one, Newbie. That's a bit more like it!"

...

**45 minutes later**

"Got it!" I shouted, jumping up out of Ianto's lap, "We found her!" After I told them the address, the team ran off, leaving me with Ianto.

Before they left completely, I stopped Owen and gave him the Inflatable Cell. "If Jack asks, I authorized you to use this. Have fun!"

"So, Ianto, what've you been up to?" I asked, walking back over to him.

"Not much, to be honest. You?"

"Nope, nothing," I shrugged and sat back down on his lap, "... Wanna do something?" I smiled suggestively. I'm not flirting, I'm just suggesting we play a game. You're almost as bad as Jack!

He grinned back, "Well, we do have almost an hour..."

"Hide-and seek? I promise I won't use my alien powers!"

"You're on!"

...

**Almost an hour later**

The front door lights flashed and the gear-door opened. Owen, Toshiko, Gwen with Carys, and Jack walked in, in that order. Owen and Toshiko headed upstairs while Jack heads upstairs as well, leaving Gwen with Carys.

"See what you can find out from her," he instructed.

"But aren't you going to help me? I don't know what I'm doing!" Gwen exclaimed. Carys didn't seem to notice that anything was happening around her.

"Usually better if you don't say that in front of the prisoner," Jack commented. He then walked up the stairs to his office, only to be graced with the sight of me, sitting in his desk. "Aves, what have I told you about sitting on my desk?" he smirked.

"That I should do it more often because I'm totally sexy when I do?" I teased, "You missed an awesome game of naked hide-and-seek!"

"Yes you do," he smiled, "But I also said not when the team's around! And what? You played without me? Bad girl!" he playfully scolded. Lifting me off the desk, Jack kissed my forehead and gestured me out. Being the flirt he is, he slapped my on the butt as I passed.

...

**About three minutes later**

Owen shouted at us, "Oi, you lot... Treat!"

Walking over, Jack, Tosh, Owen and I see Gwen and that girl making out in a cell.

"She said she had a boyfriend," Tosh said.

"You people and your quaint little categories," I laughed. Owen smiled, watching the screen intently. He's enjoying this far too much!

"We should really get her out of there..." Tosh said. I nodded and turned to go down there.

"Yeah..." Jack agreed absently. After a second what she said sunk in and he jumped, "I mean, yeah! Come on!"

Owen was about to get up, but I heard him hesitate and mumble, "Just, uh... Record a bit first..."

...

**A minute or two later (do I seriously have to do this every time? Yes? Fine...)**

When Gwen came back upstairs, we heard a kind of a fight break out between her and Owen. Walking over to them, Jack and I spoke in unison once they finished.

"You know, strictly speaking, throttling the staff is our job?" Gwen stared at Owen a bit longer before releasing him.

"So ... who's for Chinese?" we heard Ianto ask.

...

**About ten minutes later**

"And she said ... she said, "If I'd known that's what he was, I never would have married him!"" Jack and the table erupted into laughter. I was sitting at the opposite head of the table, confused. What did that mean? Marriage? What?

"She knew! She knew all along!" Tosh continued, leaning back in her chair.

Owen picked up the conversation, "She didn't care,"

"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub!" Ianto laughed.

"Always the big giveaway," Jack said, picking up his glass, "Aliens have no sense of household hygiene. Except for you, Aves!" he set his cup down and stood up, "Which reminds me, gotta pee,"

Seeing the glances exchanged between the rest of the team, I stood up too, "Jack... What does that mean? Jack!" and I rushed out of the room. Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, I listened to their conversation with my dog-hearing. Using my super-awesome-telepathy, I relayed the entire thing to Jack who was actually hiding somewhere else.

"So what've they told you?" Owen asked someone.

"What about?" Gwen said, wanting clarification. Oh, he was talking to her. Makes sense; he thought we'd tell the new girl stuff.

"Themselves!" Tosh exclaimed.

"You've been here longer than I have," Gwen said, trying to get the attention off of her.

Tosh spoke, "We were banking on you!"

"You're a copper, trained to ask questions," Owen said almost immediately after.

"You don't know anything?" Gwen queried.

"Not who they are, not where they're from. Nothing, except him being gay, and her.. Not even that," Owen admitted.

"No, he's not," Gwen refused, "Really, do you think?"  
"No. Owen does. I don't," came Toshiko's voice.

"And I don't care," added Ianto.

Owen gave his "evidence" of Jack being gay, "Period military is not the dress code of a straight man, and they certainly don't match coats with their co-bosses!"

"I think it suits him. Sort of classic," Gwen said.

"Exactly! I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough, and the way he and Avery flirt? They _have_ to have _something_ going on!"

"We know they're from America, right?" Gwen asked.

"We don't even know that for sure," Owen responded, "Though Avery's an alien. Told us herself. From the planet Markova, land of the immortal, shape changing telepaths,"

"No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness registered in the last fifty years," Tosh said. Gwen knew that, though, "And no Avery Trent ever, even though she said she's been living here for seven years,"

"Maybe their identity's classified," Gwen reasoned.

"Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon," Ianto said.

"They must have their reasons for wanting to keep things secret," Gwen commented.

"Sure they have. Doesn't stop me wanting to know what they are," said Owen. I couldn't quite hear what made them stop talking, but they did and Jack and I walked back in. He really only left to let them talk.

Upon entering the room, I saw the monitor was turned on and Cary's was sitting in a cell, crying.

"What are we doing having Chinese while a girl fights for her life?" Gwen asked, moving closer to the monitor.

I answered her, "Actually, while we've been eating, the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys, profiling her blood,"

"Metabolism," Jack continued.

"Organs," I listed.

"Skin,"

"The works. So we can see what effect the alien's having on her," I was being rather patient with her right now.

"We've also been taking samples of the air in the cell so we can analyze any changes in the environment around her," Jack continued.

"Now, is that enough? Do you want more? Cos, uh, it gets kinda boring," I completed.

"God, it's scary when they do that," Owen stage-whispered.

Gwen glared at us, "You've been hidden down here too long. Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human,"

I snorted and everyone looked at me. Jack moved on, "So remind us. Tell me what it means to be human in the 21st century,"

"Alright,"

...

**About three hours later, somehow still daytime (? I have no clue either)**

I was in the tourist center with Ianto - as a dog again - just talking.

_So, you and Jack were stuck in Peru once and the only way to get out of this hole in the cliff-face was to make a rope out of your clothes and vines you found?_ I laughed, rolling on the floor. We were in the back room, out of the way.

"We only used our clothes because he used the vines earlier to make a campfire!" Ianto laughed back, reclining in some swively chair.

I was about to tell him about some story that Jack and I went on when the wall-door-secret-entrance opened and Carys and Jack came through. We walked out to see her holding the hand in a jar and Jack holding his gun.

"Need us to do any attacking, sir?" Ianto asked. I growled menacingly next to him.

"Appreciate the offer. Just open the door," Jack said, out of breath. He put his gun away and Ianto pressed the button. Jack then held out his hands for the jar.

"Now give me the jar," he said rather nicely given the situation.

Carys looked at the door and at Jack. Throwing the container over the counter, she sprinted out the door.

Tearing off after her, I was about to leap and tackle her when I got a message from Jack in my surgically implanted, telepathically controlled communicator just behind my ear.

Activating it, I heard Jack's voice come in my ear rather fuzzily. _Jack, focus your signal. It's fuzzy. _

"..rry. How's this?" he asked.

_Crystal clear. What's up? I can tackle her from here..._

"No! Just follow her. Keep to the shadows, but always in your sight or smell or whatever. Can I get a visual?" he asked. By a visual, he meant that we use my telepathy to see through each others' eyes for five hours, tops.

_Slowing to a trot, I rolled my eyes. Fine. But if turns out like last time, I'm never having sex with you again. Nah, I could never do that to myself... I won't make you pancakes!_ I negotiated.

"No! Avery Trent-Harkness, you wouldn't dare not make me pancakes! I LOVE your pancakes!" he exclaimed in mock-offense and using my unofficial last name. What we meant by "last time," was that he tried to see how much of each other we could control when we were like this so he ended up making me slap myself in the face and dunk my head underwater.

_I know you do!_ I smiled, _Activating Visual now._ I felt our minds meld to a certain degree and I could now picture two images in my head. One of Carys walking dazed down the streets of Cardiff, and another of the Hub.

_Jack, she's going into a pedestrian zone. I can't follow her here, what if someone tries to take me home?_

"You got your collar on?" he asked.

_Yeah, be glad I am. I almost took it off. It's so annoying! Do I ever wear it anywhere but bed?_ I smirked. I can tell he blushed just a little bit. Not enough that anyone other than I would notice.

"Well, no, but..." he covered it well.

_I'll just follow her from the shadows. Include me in the conversations, please?_

...

Through Jack's eyes, I saw Owen explain his findings.

"So I'm trying to interpret the results of the bio-scan. Yeah, but it's just a mess, like there's no definitive readings. Because everything in her body keeps changing, nothing stays constant. So, as soon as you think you've got something clear, the metabolic rate, the blood pressure, it all goes wild again," he said.

"She's fighting the alien for control of her own body," Jack said, getting clarification.

"Yeah. So anyway, I decided to do a comparative diagnostic. Uh, recreate the circumstances, accelerate the process a little, see what's gonna happen to Carys," he explained.

"Yeah, thanks," Gwen said sarcastically.

Jack looked at the rat Owen had in a tank.

"I infected the rat with a combination of the Vorax and Suranium gas traces we found down at the crash site and at the nightclub," Owen said.

"Looks fine so far," Tosh said.

"Once the gases start to flow round the body, the party really starts," he walked up the stairs to a projection of his findings. "The heart rate triples. The brain swells, pressing against the skull. And as that keep going, then the lungs began to shrink, making it impossible to breathe. The pressure increases on all the internal organs until ..."

BOOM! The rat exploded and became red goop in a box.

"Rat jam!" Owen exclaimed.

_Yum_, I said to Jack.

"That's what's gonna happen to Carys? ... Bazooka! That's gross! She says "Yum,"" everyone gave Jack a look, meant for me, but Gwen's was one of confusion. Jack and I ignored her so she moved on.

""I'm losing", that's what she said to me," she said.

"Right now, it's a struggle between where Carys ends and the alien begins," Owen said ominously.

...

I followed Carys around the city, keeping to the shadows. She was walking in a daze, spinning slowly in circles. I realized just how much sex-related stuff was in Cardiff. There was a few posters of naked dudes, and underwear models, and who knows what the hell else. Wow. Earth, you have _no_ shame!

_You can say that again!_ Came a familiar voice in my mind.

_Hey, Doctor!_ I said back, _Where are you? Still with Martha?_

_Yep. Tell me, who had more pre-downloaded number ones, Elvis or the Beatles?_

_Elvis. The Beatles aren't on iTunes yet, and won't be for another like three years._ I answered quickly. It sounded like he needed it fast.

_Thanks. Got to go. One last thing. You know what happy primes are, right?_

_Course I do! I loved recreational mathematics. My best class after art, languages, science, time, history... Pretty song every single other class. That's the one thing I remember, though, because they're happy. Anyway. Bye! See you sometime. You should visit._

_I will, once I save this ship from crashing into the sun... Have any ideas on how to fix a ship that uses energy scoops for fusion?_ He asked.

_Aren't those outlawed?_

_Yeah. But, this ship is old..._

_Umm... You could try unplugging it and plugging it back in?_

_Sigh. Thanks for your help. I'll visit soon!_ He said, ending the conversation.

...

I followed her to some man's apartment. By the looks of his living space, he was a jerk and a slob. Probably an ex.

_Jack, she's at her ex's house. Here's my coordinates. Should I go in?_

"No. Stay outside. We'll be there soon. Stay outside!" he commanded. I rolled my eyes but stayed outside all the same.

Laying down on the sidewalk outside the building, I tuned myself into their conversation and wagged my tail when people patted my head. They could see me, but just as a normal dog. Probably a German Shepard or something like that.

I heard a man's voice float through the building to me, "What the hell are you doing here? You look a bit wired,"

"I had to see you," came Carys' voice.

"You should've called. Bethan might've been in," the man said. What kind of a name is that?

"I could kill you," she said.

"I could bloody kill you! What the hell was that message you left on my mobile last night? Sounded like you were off your face," he exclaimed.

"If I wanted to, I could kill you ... now," she threatened.

He didn't seem to understand her, and continued talking about their relationship. "Look, I've told you. I'm not leaving Bethan. You're a lovely girl, but it's just not gonna happen,"

"You were my first, see. I never told you cos I thought you'd laugh. And you're crap. All you want is to come and you don't care what's underneath," oh, great. That's the kind of guy he is. Maybe I'll just let things play out and not go pull her off? Maybe I'll listen to Jack this time.

"Go on, have a go. Get it out of your system," he groaned. A woman walked by me on the street and stopped to look at my collar.

"Aww, you poor thing! Come 'ere, lemme have a look at you," she cooed overly sweetly. I didn't budge.

Carys gave a cry of pain and I perked my ears, "Ah!"

"Do you love me, Eddie? Did you ever love me?" she asked him.

"No," he said instantaneously. What a jerkwad!

"You could've saved yourself," she said.

"What?" he asked.

I didn't hear any more conversation, so I'm assuming the worst happened. The woman on the street grabbed my collar with both hands and pulled me to my feet. Damn, she's strong! Not many can do that. Growling, I planted my paws into the ground and refused to move. She moved so the collar was pulling backwards and choking me, so I had to do something fast.

Rearing up onto my hind legs, I put my paws on her shoulders and growled in her face.

"Thank you," she cackled. Pulling out heavy duty wire cutters from nowhere, she snapped my collar. What the hell? "I knew you had a perception filter!"

Pulling it off, I saw a few other people on the street look at me in awe. "My god, it's a wolf! Call the RSPCA!" someone screamed. Shit.

_Jack! We have a situation here! _I screamed. He knew what was going on, but was focused on something else so he wasn't paying attention to me. That quickly changed, though.

"What - shit! Owen, Code 584!" he commanded.

"584! Avery, what the hell happened?" I heard him say. I didn't reply because I was focusing on outrunning the RSPCA. How did they get here so quickly?

Sprinting down the road, I heard cameras flash behind me. Damn. I'm going to be on the news! Lowering my entire body to the ground, I pressed myself to go faster.

_Jack, I'm at the corner of _ turning onto _ meet me at the other end._ I said. With any luck, he'll just pick me up and I'll jump in. Or he might run over my furry a- CAR!

Screeching to a halt, I flipped onto my side and tucked into a roll, missing the car completely. Leaping to my feet, I stole a glance at what car it was and saw the familiar Torchwood SUV. The back door opened up and I bounded inside.

_What the HELL was that? Were you TRYING to kill me?!_ I screamed in their heads. Everyone but Jack flinched, ironically. Panting, I got myself into a sitting position between Tosh and Gwen. Tosh patted my shoulder in a comforting manner while Gwen was confused.

"What's code 584?" she asked.

Jack answered, "It's when something happens to a member of the team that the press gets ahold of. In this case, people got pictures of Bazooka as a wolf and they're going to send them in to the news. Congrats Zooks, you made the front page!"

I growled. Owen laughed, so I growled again. The rest of the ride was in relative silence until I spoke again. _So, where are we going?_ I asked.

"Conway Clinic," Owen answered.

_You're kidding._

"See? She did it too!" he said, "And no, we're not. She's a temp there, so that's where we're heading,"

_She works at Conway, and now she has an alien that feeds off of orgasmic energy and she's heading there now,_ I gaped.

"Yeah, sums it up," he said. Reaching over, he handed Gwen a gun and I wanted to Shift, but there wasn't enough space.

"What's this for?" she asked.

"Need a diagram?" Jack asked.

"I've never used a gun," she protested. I rolled my eyes, knowing this was an awful idea.

"You were in the police!" he exclaimed.

"I was on the beat!"

"Carry it. Avery and I'll make sure you don't need to use it,"

Owen snapped cartridges into two more guns and handed them to Tosh. She would hold onto mine until I shifted outside. I always kept a tiny pistol in my boot in case I needed it, but this one was my main one and another member of the team kept it when I was a wolf.

"What do we do if we find her? How are we going to get it out of her?" Gwen asked.

Tosh leaned around me and answered her, "Judging by the test results, the gas needed a host because prolonged exposure to our atmosphere is poisonous to it. But our bodies are the perfect environment,"

"So, if we isolate it from Carys' body..." Jack suggested, trying to get her to understand.

"It won't survive for long," she finally got it.

"Sounds like we have ourselves a plan,"

"Force it to die,"

"Just like it did those poor blokes,"

"What about Carys?" she asked.

"Better start praying we get to her in time," Owen answered.

The car stopped outside the clinic and I leapt over Gwen to Shift. By the time I was done, everyone else was out of the car. Adjusting my trench coat and taking my gun from Tosh, I ran inside.

"Out! Now! Get as far away as you can!" Jack shouted to the men sitting in the waiting room. It was busy for a Tuesday night!

We split up and began searching the rooms. Jack, Gwen and I and Owen and Tosh were the groups.

After bursting into another room, Gwen gasped "Oh, God, how many more?"

"In here!" Owen shouted.

We entered the room to see Owen, gun pointed at Carys. We blocked her exit and I smiled evilly.

"Nowhere to run," I said.

"All this sex. All we see, all we think. So much beauty... And so much fear. We want it but we're so afraid of it... Ah!" she gasped as a wave of pain washed over her. She fell to the floor and Gwen held her.

Owen gave his report, "The strain on her body's too much. Any second now, she's rat jam, and don't you dare say yum, Aves,"

"I wasn't going to!" I rolled my eyes. Come on, they can trust me enough to be serious _sometimes_!

"One more and I'll be strong. Each time, it works less. Each time, the feeling's weaker. One more. Make me feel alive. Make me feel human," Carys pleaded of Gwen.

"I can't," Gwen said back, putting Carys's head down.

Jack and I were silent a second before we said, "I can," we both stepped forward and put our guns away.

"Jack! Avery!" Gwen gasped.

"I've got a surplus of life. I'm giving it away. Avery, you heard the footage of them in a cell together. It doesn't work with women," I smiled and stepped back. He kneeled down next to her and leaned in close, "You really want to feel something?" he asked her. Kissing her deeply, they both began to glow a bit as his life force was being drained.

I felt a bit of jealously bubbling up in the pit of my stomach. He was _my_ mate!

Owen gasped, "What's he doing?" and Tosh shook her head.

After what felt like forever, she stopped glowing and they broke apart, "That was just the kiss. Imagine the buzz you get from the rest," he turned and smirked at me. I glared at him and prepared to walk out.

Carys smiled at Jack and then collapsed. Still smiling, he continued, "It wasn't exactly the reaction I anticipated,"

"Her body won't last much longer," Owen said and I chose that moment to walk out. Tosh, who wasn't doing anything at the moment, followed me.

"Avery? Avery, are you alright?" she called. I sniffed a little bit and nodded, sitting down. She sat down next to me. "What's wrong?"

Clearing my throat a little, I straightened up and shook my head, "It's nothing,"

"Honey, it won't make it better if you don't tell anyone," she said gently.

I looked her in the eye for a long while then slowly nodded. She was right. "Well, it just kinda hurt me to see Jack kiss someone else. You know I'm a Markovian, but Markovians have deep relationships between three people. Jack is one of them,"

She quickly caught on to what I was trying to say and pulled me into a hug, "Oh, it's ok. You know that was just to save Carys!" she rubbed my shoulder a bit.

"Yeah, but he could have done that any other way. He didn't have to kiss her," I whined.

"Maybe you should talk to him -" she started before I shook my head vigorously, "... Or the other person in your relationship?" she suggested confusedly.

I looked up. There wasn't anyone else yet. We could wait centuries until we found the right person.

Nodding my head a bit, I thanked her for her help and called Ianto to come and pick me up. He said he'd be there in a few minutes.

...

**Few minutes later**

"The SUV was still there. Any reason you wanted me to pick you up?" Ianto asked me.

"I wanted a ride in the sports car," I said, putting a fake smile on my face. He nodded, giving me an odd look. I think he knew I was lying, but thankfully he didn't say anything.

"Ok, then. If you wanted to drive, you could've just told me," he said. That was pretty much it for our conversation.

...

**Later that night**

I was just about to confront Jack about what happened when we heard shuffling coming from Gwen's work station. Looking at each other, we simultaneously turned out of his office and walked down the stairs. We saw Gwen removing the photos and information on the board about Carys.

Jack leaned against the rail and I leaned on him. "Still here?" he asked. She jumped a little bit. "Everybody else is off doing... Whatever it is they do when they're not here," he smiled a forced little smile.

"How long have you been there?" she asked, setting down the papers in her hand before taking more down. Jack and I shrugged. "I wanted to finish off," she said.

"Do one thing for us. Don't let the job consume you. You have a life. Perspective. We need that," I said.

She put down the rest of the papers and turned to face us, hands on her hips, "Who are you two?"

"I'm sorry?" Jack asked.

"Jack, you can't die. Avery, you can't either and you can turn into a wolf. You tell me the 21st century is when it all changes, that we have to be prepared,"

"So you do," Jack said. I was being strangely quiet, and I think Jack was noticing.

"But how can you know?"

Jack raised an eyebrow, "You think knowing the answers would make you feel better?"

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asked, looking directly at me. I tightened my grip on Jack's arm a bit, letting him know I didn't want to answer.

He diverted her attention, "Go home, Gwen Cooper. Eat lasagna. Kiss your boyfriend. Be normal,"

"For us," I finished. We turned and walked away back into my office this time and waited until she left.  
**-CJA**


End file.
